Wednesday 12 March 2008

Breakthrough In Digital Photography

There's been a milestone in digital photography and it's one you'll want to hear if you're in the market for a new camera.

TODAY’S TMJ4 Technology Guru Scott Steele found a breakthrough that gives you more for less.

It's common to see prices on electronics come down as technology improves, but one company has crossed an incredible barrier. DXG - the digital camera company has developed a 10 mega pixel product for less than $200.

Ten mega pixels for less than $200 seems impossible, especially since they claim that price is achieved without sacrificing qualities and features.

To check that out, Scott Steele had one of the nation's finest photographers put the unit through its paces.

"I've had a very diverse career over the last 25 years of photographing. I've ranged from fashion and advertising in Chicago to…I worked in Hollywood,” Dan Zaitz said.

Dan Zaitz has been hired by the likes of Barbara Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld and the producers of Baywatch.

"I was the photographer for the number one show in the country and the number one show in the world at the same time,” Zaitz said.

While his fine art hangs in high end galleries, his cameras and accessories consume several large cases and cost tens of thousands of dollars.

"Well, like I said, this camera here, the body of it alone starts at about $4,500, so it's about $4,300 more than your little camera that you're talking about,” Zaitz said.

Zaitz took the DXG 110 out along side his high-end SLR to shoot some of the same subject matter side by side.

TODAY’S TMJ4’s Scott Steele: "So this is a fair way to compare the two?"

"It's a relatively fair way to compare the two cameras. I mean, part of it is that you're trying to compare apples and oranges,” Zaitz said.

One of the first things that surprised him was the extensive professional feature set that includes AutoFocus tracking and face detection along with proprietary technology like Advance Flash controls and Automatic Contrast management.

"As you can see, the exposure, light level, contrast is very similar. The main difference is in the focus, in the saturation of the two,” Zaitz said.

When it came time to comparing the photos from both cameras, Zaitz, a man whose vocabulary never included point and shoot found himself impressed.

Scott Steele: "You think the average person would be pleased or not?"

"They would be absolutely pleased. I know I would be pleased to use a little camera like this. Ten mega pixels affords me the opportunity to make larger prints. The fact that you can get a ten mega pixel camera for under $200, you can't go wrong. You absolutely cannot go wrong,” Zaitz said.